BIB_07: Coppola, N. W. (2005). Big science or bricolage: An alternative model for research in technical communication. IEEE transactions on professional communication, 48(3).

Coppola argues in this article for the continuation of the bricoleur approach in technical communication research that has been undervalued by researchers who are proponents of the Big Science approach. The article is in response to the prevailing call for "research" in technical communication, which favors the Gig Science research often associated with funded research. Drawing on Aristotelian philosophic tradition and invoking the idea of praxis, Coppola emphasizes the importance of the attention to context and individual experience in research, an approach in line with bricolage in Lévi-Strauss's term. Coppola advocates resistance to the assertion that not enough research has been done in tech comm, and call for the celebration of the a multi-methods tradition in technical communication research.

This is another article that deals with the debate between scientific and non-scientific methodologies in the field of technical communication. Coppola, like many from a rhetorical background such as Salvo, Johnson, and Sullivan, puts great value to the consideration of contexts and specificities. His is a piece that directly resist the impulse of valuing empirical/scientific research over bricolage.